After 8 years, I'm moving on from my current company. I'm pretty excited as the place I'll be working for is ideologically more aligned with who I am. This is kindof like the major life decision version of this:

That said, 8 years is a long time to be at a place and I wouldn't have stuck around if I didn't think it was a good company. They treated me well - no obnoxious bureaucracy, good pay, good benefits, full sized office. But then they got bought out and some of that changed, and slowly I got tired of what I was doing.

I asked my mom and sister for advice on how to actually handle putting in my notice, and they kept on saying that I should give two weeks notice and take off. But I'm kindof leaving them in a lurch because strategically they didn't figure out a good person to act as backup for me, and so they're going to have to try to train someone in my waning weeks to take over my position. I already talked with the new company and explained it might take me a month, and sure enough the employer I'm parting ways with asked for that and I'm choosing to oblige. I kindof wish I wasn't since I'm excited to move on, but for some reason I think I would feel bad if I had said no.

So instead of traveling further out into the suburbs I'll be walking to the metro and taking the train into the district. I haven't done that since my internship in college, and even though I was the lowest rung on the ladder then, it felt kind of glamorous and cool. I'm looking forward to that feeling of being part of the city, of naturally getting more exercise by hoofing it, of staring up at buildings, of being surrounded by people.

Additionally, I have been working for 4-5 years with teams of people that were half a world away. While it was an interesting experience, the time difference is rough. I miss working with team mates who are in the same office so I can have face to face conversations with them. The back and forth of actual problem solving with someone in the same room is gratifying in a way that phone calls and emails aren't. The technologies are different as well, so I'll be challenged to learn new things.

I'm also proud of myself because I don't usually take leaps like this. While my politics might be liberal, I'm not much of a risk taker.

Anyway, figured I'd share some good news, and to those working in DC if you ever want to get happy hour, holler at me in a month and maybe we can rendezvous. Cheers.